UT football: Academic advisor dismissed

AUSTIN — Brian Davis, who arrived at Texas with Mack Brown in 1998 and served as the UT football team’s head academic adviser for 16 years, has been fired by the school, athletic department sources confirmed Tuesday.

Davis’ dismissal was reported first by the Austin American-Statesman.

Davis, whose official title was associate athletic director, had worked under Brown for 25 seasons, dating back to their time together at North Carolina. He oversaw the academics for all Longhorns men’s sports until 2005, when UT promoted Randa Ryan to take charge of every sport except for football.

That move came in the aftermath of UT men’s basketball standout P.J. Tucker being ruled academically ineligible in 2004, and five UT baseball players being ruled academically ineligible in 2005.

Last fall, one of new athletic director Steve Patterson’s first moves was to promote Ryan to oversee all of the department’s academic affairs. Davis was paid a salary of $150,000 per year, according to a Texas Tribune database of state employee salaries.

Ryan, who earns $220,000 per year according to the same database, is the subject of an independent audit after the American-Statesman reported last month that she routed $20,454.30 of UT purchase orders through an antique store she owns. Ryan was not placed on leave during the audit.

Under Davis, the football team posted mixed academic results. Although UT was one of only two FBS programs (with Charlie Strong’s Louisville team) to post a perfect Academic Progress Rate of 1,000 in 2012-’13, its latest multiyear score of 947 was only sixth in the 10-team Big 12. In addition, the Longhorns had five different players ruled academically ineligible in the last three seasons, including Daje Johnson, Kennedy Estelle and Jalen Overstreet for last December’s Valero Alamo Bowl.

Strong, who replaced Brown as UT’s head coach in January, was not available for comment. He is expected to have a voice, but not final say, on Davis’ replacement.